Heroes Not Zombies

I noticed this leaf the other day. There were lots of leaves on the ground and they were all sparkling with tiny ice crystals.

Why did this one catch my eye?

Because it’s different.

Different from all the other bejewelled leaves lying around, and what makes it so different is that difference you can see across the leaf itself…..only the lower half of the leaf is sparkling with ice while the upper half appears largely free of it. I

t’s as if part of the leaf is warmer than the other part. How can that be? It was lying in a shady part of the garden so the sun hadn’t cast its rays more over one part of the leaf than the other. I lifted it up and didn’t notice anything unusual underneath it. I don’t know how come it looks like this.

But this is what we find time and again – polarities and opposites appearing together, like north and south poles of magnets.

When patients came to see me I listened to, and examined, them to make a diagnosis – to find what they had in common with everyone else who had the same disease. But at the same time I was on the lookout for the opposite – the differences that made a difference – in other words, whatever made me see their uniqueness.

We are good at spotting difference. We notice a background noise when it stops. We see a flicker of movement at the edges of our vision. We can pick out a familiar face in a crowd.

I know it’s important to make connections, to find common ground and to resonate with others. It’s good and pleasing to find similarities. They strengthen feelings of belonging.

But differences are incredibly important too. They reveal uniqueness, encourage our curiosity and bring us opportunities to recognise what’s “special”.